2.19.2007

Help Me Out Here

I have to finish up my cover art suggestions for my November book today. The book's title is Sex Bomb, (hee hee--I love that title), and I need ideas for cover images. I'm brain-dead thanks to my current work in progress.

So help! If you come up with a cover image idea that I end up using as one of my suggestions, I'll mention your name in the book's dedication. I get to suggest three cover ideas, so potentially there could be three names mentioned. The catch is that you have to give your ideas to me here in the blog comments section by the end of today, which I know isn't much notice.

Here's a little about the story: The heroine is a makeup artist by day who secretly longs for a life of excitement and intrigue. When an operative from a secret crime-fighting organization called The Enforcers crawls through her window one night, ties her up, and tells her that if she helps him find her criminal father, she'll have a chance at becoming an Enforcer herself, she accepts the challenge, while secretly planning to seduce him so that she can protect her father from being captured. She figures sex is the one weapon every woman knows how to wield better than a man. Or something like that.

12 Comments:

Hey, Jamie, I immediately pictured a close-up of her tied to the bed, maybe just her hands. And maybe him leaning over her. But that doesn't really go with the title. But I like it anyway. And, really, you should dedicate ALL your books to me regardless of my crappy cover ideas.

Cindy

Okay, here's another one - a mirror or something with the title spelled on it in lipstick? Except they wouldn't do that for a Blaze, would they?

Um...maybe a close-up of a woman's hand applying lipstick, but it's not really a lipstick tube, kind of like the opposite of what Jamie Lee Curtis does at the end of True Lies (when she pretends her lipstick is a weapon while doing the tango ;-).

Or the back of a woman facing a mirror on a vanity covered with makeup or girly-girl stuff, but in the mirror's reflection you see something dangerous. A gun or a man tied to her bed or...something. I'm no romantic suspense aficionado, so whatever those types of books like to use as symbolism. lol

That's the best I can come up with off the top of my head. I love the title, too! Was it your idea?

I think it's funny you both mentioned mirrors, because I had vowed never to suggest a mirror cover at one point.

BUT, your ideas sparked a cover art suggestion I really like and hope they'll use--in the foreground a tube of red lipstick, open, sitting on a vanity, with a gun lying next to it, and then reflected in the vanity's mirror is the hero and heroine making out.

Then I suggested a more traditional clinch cover, and because it's a Christmas book, the other idea was an open gift box under a Christmas tree with a pair of handcuffs or a gun in it.

I'll let you know what they choose. Thank you, Cindy, and Melissa, for jumping in and helping me brainstorm. I'll dedicate the book to both of you.

Hey, cool, that's sweet of you. :-) You can use Melissa Ann James, which I've always used for writing-related stuff. For now, I'm limiting Avery to the web to keep people from tripping over my website when they're really looking for a different author. She's waiting for a contract to make a full public appearance. lol

I KNOW. Isn't that weird? What are the odds that she'd pick that name, and then I'd come along with the real name, also wanting to write for HQ. Oh, well, I like my pseudonym, so I don't mind too much anymore.

Avery Beck is cute. However if you really wanted to use your real name, have you thought of going with another version of it, like Lissa James (i think you can claim a nickname as your legal name for contract purposes) or M.A. James, or Melissa Ann James (this one's probably too similar to the other author, but it's still cute).

I know some people aren't as caught up in seeing their name on book covers as i am. :-) Maybe your pseudonym could be for your romance, and then if you ever decide to write for a second genre you still have your legal name to choose if you want.

I moved completely away from my name because for some reason, "James" itself is a popular last name for writers. I mean, there are at least five or six romance-writing Jameses at the moment, and I think most of them are pen names. I feel the need to establish my uniqueness. lol

I used to be all about seeing my real name on a book cover, but now I just want to see my words in between. I can't imagine how cool it would be to see my story in print after staring at it on the computer screen for so long.